Hockey

June 24, 1985|By Russ White

RED FACES. The top coaches and players of the Soviet Union's national hockey team have been reprimanded severely for training and discipline failures that cost them the 1985 World Championship in Prague this spring. Moscow's Sovietsky Sport publicized the reprimands in a report on a meeting of the State Sports Committee that evidently was convened to discuss the defeat in Prague. The heavily favored Soviets, who had held the World Championship since 1977, finished in third place after losing to Czechoslovakia, 2-1, and to Canada, 3-1, in the medal round. Sovietsky Sport reported Viktor Tikhonov and his assistant, V. Yurzinov, were reprimanded for ''serious miscalculations'' in team selection, training and tactics in Prague. The program as a whole was taken to task for failing to ensure young players were trained to replace the great departed stars, such as goalie Vladislav Tretiak.